The present invention relates generally to a method of cutting an animal carcass into edible meat products and, more particularly, to a method of cutting a pork butt into pork products which are relatively high in economic value.
The butchering and dressing of animals, such as hogs, pigs, and other swine (hereinafter referred to as pork), for the purpose of producing edible meat or pork products is generally well known. Typically, such animals are butchered or otherwise processed into numerous well known meat products such as pork roasts, hams, spare ribs, bacon, sausage, or the like. Typically, a side or quarter of pork is butchered by a meat cutter cutting or otherwise removing from the side or quarter as many "high value" pork products as feasible using a knife, saw, and/or other standard meat processing equipment. Such high value pork products, which are generally comprised of substantially solid or near solid pork muscles, include roasts, hams, and the like. Typically, once all such relatively high value cuts or pork products are removed from the pork side or quarter, the products are further processed by deboning, trimming, cleaning, and the like, and are thereafter cured or otherwise processed, wrapped, and sold for relatively high per pound prices. The other, less desirable or lower value components of the pork side or quarter are also removed from any remaining bones and, along with components trimmed from the higher value pork products, are typically placed into a meat grinder or similar equipment and are ground up for making ground pork or other less expensive pork products, such as pork sausage. The quality of the ground pork or other such less expensive pork products depends upon the source of the components being placed in the meat grinder, the amount of fat and/or other less desirable materials present in the components placed in the grinder, and other factors. However, the per pound price of the ground pork or other such products made from the ground pork is substantially less than the per pound price of the higher value pork products described above.
As the cost of bringing pork to market has steadily increased, a need has arisen for obtaining enhanced value from the pork. One way to provide such enhanced value is to reduce the amount of the pork components placed in a meat grinder or otherwise used for low value pork products. The present invention comprises a method of cutting a pork butt or the tip of a pork shoulder blade to provide new pork products having substantially enhanced value over the prior usage of such pork components.
As is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, the pork butt generally comprises a portion of the shoulder of the animal and is generally not considered to be suitable for high quality pork products because it is not a large solid muscle. Instead, a pork butt contains an irregularly shaped blade bone as well as fat, many seams, membranes, cartilage, and other non-muscle components so that in the past the pork butt was typically used only for the purpose of forming ground pork, sausage, or other less expensive pork products. The present invention comprises a method of removing from a pork butt one or more shoulder muscles, each of which comprises substantially solid pieces of pork meat with minimal fat, cartilage, membrane, or other non-muscle components. Each such shoulder muscle may thereafter be cut into high quality pork products which may be sold at relatively high per pound prices, particularly when compared to the prices of ground pork or pork sausage. Because of the relatively high pork muscle low fat content, each such pork product is considered to be "heart healthy". In utilizing the method of the present invention, the amount of pork which must be put into a grinder, formed into sausage or other low value pork products, is substantially reduced, thereby enhancing the overall economic value of the pork.